Tessa Sanderson was yesterday ordered to withdraw from discussions relating to West Ham United's and Tottenham Hotspur's bids to take over the Olympic Stadium, after Digger revealed the previously undisclosed conflict of interest in her activities with Newham council.

Digger exclusively revealed that through her Newham Sports Academy, the 1984 Olympic javelin gold medallist receives funding from the council, despite being a fully active member of the Olympic Park Legacy Company board.

As the strategic and commercial partner to West Ham in the campaign for post-2012 tenancy of the Olympic Stadium, Newham is effectively a bidder in the £100m public procurement process being run by the OPLC.

The OPLC says Sanderson never made clear her association with the council in the register of directors' interests she completed for the quasi-statutory body. When Baroness Ford, the OPLC chair, learned of Digger's investigation into Sanderson's links to Newham council she acted immediately.

Ford told Sanderson first thing yesterday morning that since her academy's main source of funds is the local council – from whom Sanderson personally receives fees – she could no longer take part in discussions about the Olympic Stadium. "It has come to the OPLC's attention that [its] board member Tessa Sanderson has a personal consultancy contract with Newham council," it said in a statement. "This had not been disclosed to the company. As a result, Tessa Sanderson has been excluded from all matters relating to the stadium process.

"Newham council is in one of the two shortlisted consortiums bidding to lease the Olympic Stadium and therefore this represents a conflict of interest. Board members are obliged to give declarations of interests, including pecuniary interests, in any matter where there is a potential conflict of interest."

Since Digger first attempted to make contact with Sanderson through her agent on Tuesday she has not returned calls, although she is believed privately to have protested that she did make clear her association with Newham.

As a result of yesterday's development Sanderson will remain on the board but will have no vote in the recommendations for post‑Games use of the stadium and must leave the room when discussions turn to that subject. A similar arrangement is in place for Sir Robin Wales, Sanderson's fellow OPLC board member, whose position as the mayor of Newham was immediately recognised as a conflict of interest.

It is on the basis of the OPLC's recommendation that the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and mayor of London, Boris Johnson, will jointly decide which club to award the right to tenancy of the stadium after the 2012 Games. The OPLC's aim has been to inform Hunt and Johnson, West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur, of its recommendations for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park tomorrow.

However, the intervention over Sanderson's position in the talks could delay its decision over which bidder gets the stadium until the middle of next month."As part of the decision concerning the future of the Olympic Stadium, the Legacy Company's board will recommend a preferred bidder to the OPLC's founder members, the government and the London mayor's office, who will then make a final decision," said the OPLC's statement.

Sanderson 'managed her own OPLC relationship'

It may seem odd that Sir Robin Wales would gather his papers and leave the Olympic Park Legacy Company boardroom over his own conflict of interest while leaving behind his organisation's consultant, Tessa Sanderson. However Digger hears that upon her appointment to the position, Newham council wrote to Sanderson congratulating her but informing her that she should manage her own relationship with the OPLC, without the involvement of the council or of Wales personally.

Apparently, Wales did not feel it was his place to discuss her business interests with fellow board members. "Whilst this a matter for Tessa Sanderson and the OPLC's rules, the council have always been very clear about not involving Tessa in anything to do with the stadium," the council said in a statement.

Spurs quick off the mark

Tottenham Hotspur are pressing ahead with plans to renovate the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace as the athletics legacy element of their bid for the Olympic Stadium in Stratford. Indeed, 24 hours before Crystal Palace FC announce their hopes of acquiring the NSC for relocation, a Spurs delegation held talks with Bromley council yesterday, one of three local authorities who are NSC stakeholders.

League loses its voice

Writing the Football League's response to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's select committee will be among the last acts of its respected director of marketing and communications, Gavin Megaw. The Northern Irishman, who was appointed by Lord Mawhinney to beef up the League's external relations, is leaving Gloucester Place in March to return to the world of consultancy with Hanover. Mark Hooper quits as the Football Association's spokesman on public-affairs matters on Tuesday, joiningto join Visa's communications team.

Pannu in plain English

Birmingham City's website yesterday carried an item headlined "Pannu Clarifies Club Ownership". In it Peter Pannu, the vice-chairman, informed fans that Polyanna Chu is not, after all, a 14.11% shareholder in the St Andrew's club. "Chu is the controlling shareholder of Kingston Securities Limited… [it] entered a placing agreement with the company on 22 October 2010," the statement read. "The longstop date for the placing is 25 February 2011… the number of shares in the company to be placed is 450,000,000 representing approximately 14.11% of the issued share capital of the company as at the date of the placing agreement… Once the shares in the company have been placed, their disclosure obligation will cease and their interests removed from the disclosure register." Come on Blues fans, how much clearer could Pannu be?